GDT: Sabres @ Penguins 3/5/17 5pm

[JJFIVEOH]

[North Buffalo]

Wow, 3 zip lead and they lose? Shocked that they lost the 2nd period though, that's weird! Anyway, it seems they sat back again and that refs were bad again from what I've read but honestly, this is the best outcome. 28th here we come.

PS when will Eichel start getting respect from refs?

Sums it up pretty well.

[Robviously]

Sorry but certainly not by a mile. That's not discrediting Eichel at all but to go off on Kane? Are you kidding me? Watch the games. He's been one of the hottest players in the league over the past month.

Watch the games indeed. Eichel does things no one else on the roster can do. No one else on the team is remotely close to his ability to gain the zone in the rush. He can create plays to set people up and he has the best shot on the team. It's really, really not close who our best player is.

[Hawerchuk]

It was a bs interference penalty on falk and a high stick no goal kinda game. Horrible!

[Radar]

Watch the games indeed. Eichel does things no one else on the roster can do. No one else on the team is remotely close to his ability to gain the zone in the rush. He can create plays to set people up and he has the best shot on the team. It's really, really not close who our best player is.

Responded to a fan wanting Kane off the team. Ridiculous overreaction. Buffalo style. I agree talent wise Eichel is most talented but Kane has had a great run this month.

[Robviously]

You keep saying this and it keeps being hilariously wrong. Their shot suppression, while not good, is miles better than during the tank, when AHL fodder such as Meszaros, Benoit, Strachan, McBain, and Ruwhedel or whatever would all play in the same game. 

 

GMTM deserves a lot of criticism and you dont' need to invoke ridiculous hyperbole to do it, you know?

Two years ago we were dead last in the NHL in shots allowed and right now we're....dead last in the NHL in shots allowed (after adding ROR, Eichel, etc., up front).  And as bad as our defense was back in the day, they did chip in a goal every now and then.

 

Tell me again how hilariously wrong I am.

[Taro T]

Watch the games indeed. Eichel does things no one else on the roster can do. No one else on the team is remotely close to his ability to gain the zone in the rush. He can create plays to set people up and he has the best shot on the team. It's really, really not close who our best player is.

Eichel is already showing that he is (or at minimum soon will be) the best Sabre skater since LaFontaine. Can't think of one guy that was a Sabre skater since him that I'd rather they have in his prime than Jack.

[Robviously]

Eichel is already showing that he is (or at minimum soon will be) the best Sabre skater since LaFontaine. Can't think of one guy that was a Sabre skater since him that I'd rather they have in his prime than Jack.

He might already be.  He's our most dynamic player since Hasek.  Imagine if we ever get someone who can set him up the way he sets everyone else up every game.  Reinhard is a start but we need way more of that because he should be scoring 40 goals a year with his shot.

[matter2003]

This team finds new and interesting ways to blow leads of al sizes apparently...shades of the Philadelphia game earlier in the year...

[eman]

Hell yeah. Gimme Gerard Gallant! At least he'll light some fire under some of these guys or sit . No more defending DD by anyone. How many times have we seen what transpired today? Up by 2 or 3 and then sit back and let them come to you. Sorry, it has not worked all season. Time to let him go. Seriously, this club could be in a wild card spot if it wasn't for the horrific shootout numbers ( are they even practicing this both forwards and goaltenders? It sure as hell looks like they aren't) and the dreaded sit back and try to defend once up by 2 or even 3 goals. I seriously have never been more disgusted by this club.

[Marvelo]

Well...I Iiked the first period...

[Randall Flagg]

Two years ago we were dead last in the NHL in shots allowed and right now we're....dead last in the NHL in shots allowed (after adding ROR, Eichel, etc., up front).  And as bad as our defense was back in the day, they did chip in a goal every now and then.

 

Tell me again how hilariously wrong I am.

Give me a minute to put something together.

With all the usual qualifiers and warnings about CF%, in the 28 games before Pittsburgh fired Johnston last year their CF% was 48.3%. In the remaining 54 games with Sullivan they upped it to 54.9%. Their scoring increase was likely even more drastic but I'm sick of counting individual game numbers to come up with these. Systems don't matter tho.

[dudacek]

Not been mentioned: we went run and gun against the best offence in the NHL and out shot them 52-49.

We got jobbed on the tying goal and there were enough sketchy calls/non-calls to think Lebron James was on the other team.

 

There is a bright side: the coaches of teams that blow this many leads generally get fired.

Unless your name is Mike Babcock.

[JJFIVEOH]

LMAO!! @ Koziol to caller: "Luke, you're on a roll keep going"............................. LOL! I'm pretty sure he was crying. 

Hell yeah. Gimme Gerard Gallant! At least he'll light some fire under some of these guys or sit ######. No more defending DD by anyone. How many times have we seen what transpired today? Up by 2 or 3 and then sit back and let them come to you. Sorry, it has not worked all season. Time to let him go. Seriously, this club could be in a wild card spot if it wasn't for the horrific shootout numbers ( are they even practicing this both forwards and goaltenders? It sure as hell looks like they aren't) and the dreaded sit back and try to defend once up by 2 or even 3 goals. I seriously have never been more disgusted by this club.

 

Spuddy has fire, he is an improvement. 

 

My focus has now turned towards the Panthers. They have a coach with some balls. 

[biodork]

Wow, Bio. Never seen you this angered with the boys.

I haven't had a chance to watch them much this season, and I didn't get to watch until the second period today. Just like last week against the Avs, the game was there to be won and they blew it. Inexcusable.

 

Ah, sorry but Kane is probably the third best player on the team and over the past month possibly our best player.

If the Sabres had points for all his stupid penalties...

 

Important things to happen the rest of this season:

1.) Get Dan canned, any way possible.

2.) Jack get many points.

3.) Risto, ROR survive.

4.) Sam center.

5.) Cry.

This. :( Edited March 6, 2017 by biodork

[Doohicksie]

Sorry, I know everyone's emotional because the hockey team is bad, but how did the Pegulas screw Buffalo again?

 

They're screwing Buffalo by charging top dollar for crappy sports teams (at least that's the way I took it).

[Weave]

Twitter is enlightening.

 

McCabe says "An unlucky bounce happens, then we have a breakdown.  Just like that we lose the game".

 

Eichel says :"We played aggressive in the first, and then sit back and let them take it to us in the second and third.  It's the tale of every game we've played in the last few...."  "same thing has happened in the last few weeks just about blowing leads".

 

So now a 2nd player has basically called the team fragile.  And Jack is complaining about players sitting back.

 

DD probably isn't the right coach for the team, but he isn't telling them to sit back.  This a problem with players that don't have the fortitude to get it done.  This is a player problem.

 

It wasn't that long ago that we complained about Lindy's team going into Alamo mode too.  Except it wasn't Lindy's doing.  With Drury, Briere, McKee, and Dumont they stayed on the attack.  With Pominville, Roy, Stafford, Connolly, and Vanek leading the show they laid back.  Same thing is happening today.  Something is amiss in this group of players.

[Doohicksie]

This team finds new and interesting ways to blow leads of al sizes apparently...shades of the Philadelphia game earlier in the year...

 

Or the game against Boston on 12/29 when they opened up a 2-0 first period lead.

 

They've had several "best 1st period of the year" games where they've opened up significant leads, only to come away with no points.

Twitter is enlightening.

 

McCabe says "An unlucky bounce happens, then we have a breakdown.  Just like that we lose the game".

 

Eichel says :"We played aggressive in the first, and then sit back and let them take it to us in the second and third.  It's the tale of every game we've played in the last few...."  "same thing has happened in the last few weeks just about blowing leads".

 

So now a 2nd player has basically called the team fragile.  And Jack is complaining about players sitting back.

 

DD probably isn't the right coach for the team, but he isn't telling them to sit back.  This a problem with players that don't have the fortitude to get it done.  This is a player problem.

 

It wasn't that long ago that we complained about Lindy's team going into Alamo mode too.  Except it wasn't Lindy's doing.  With Drury, Briere, McKee, and Dumont they stayed on the attack.  With Pominville, Roy, Stafford, Connolly, and Vanek leading the show they laid back.  Same thing is happening today.  Something is amiss in this group of players.

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah.... TSC.  They're a young team.  With a winning coach, they'll become a winning team.

[Robviously]

 

They're screwing Buffalo by charging top dollar for crappy sports teams (at least that's the way I took it).

They don't, though.  It's not like our ticket prices are super high.

 

Anyway, it's tough for me to see any way the Pegulas have been bad for the city.  They aren't good at owning winning teams but it's not really the type of job you can prepare for so they're learning as they go.  I'm hoping they get better.  (Soon.)

[Randall Flagg]

Two years ago we were dead last in the NHL in shots allowed and right now we're....dead last in the NHL in shots allowed (after adding ROR, Eichel, etc., up front).  And as bad as our defense was back in the day, they did chip in a goal every now and then.

 

Tell me again how hilariously wrong I am.

With the stat you refer to, you actually just give our ranking relative to the league and avoid what the actual number was, so I'm going to take a look at that. But first, some other team stats:

 

Sabres ranking in ES goals against this year: 14th, 2.05 per game.

Sabres ranking in ES goals against during the 2014-15 tank season: 27th, 2.40 per game.

Sabres ranking in ES goals against during the 2013-14 tank season: 26th,  2.28 per game.

 

Sabres ranking in total goals against this year: 16th, 2.77 per game.

Sabres ranking in total goals against during the 2014-15 tank season: 29th, 3.28 per game.

Sabres ranking in total goals against during the 2013-14 tank season: 25th, 2.96 per game.

 

Sure, this stat can be influenced by goalies. Let's look for some shot suppression:

Sabres ranking in shots against per game this year: 30th, like you said, with 33.9 shots against per game.

Sabres ranking in shots against per game during the 2014-15 tank season: 30th, with 35.6 shots per game, almost 2 more per game, which is often enough to jump 10-15 spots in this category most years.

Sabres ranking in shots against per game during the 2013-14 tank season: 28th, 34.3 shots against per game.

 

Shots aren't the whole story, how do the shot attempts match up? The Sabres this season are 24th in CA per 60, with 58 attempts allowed per 60 minutes. The McEichel tank team? 30th place, with 67.4 shot attempts allowed per 60 minutes. They had 61.4 shot attempts per 60 the season before that one, 29th place. 13/14's number is one of the worst since this started being tracked, and the McEichel team's CA per 60 is by far the worst ever recorded. This year's team isn't even bottom 5 among teams in 2016-17 by itself.

 

So they are better at suppressing shots than they were those seasons. Let's take a look at where they came from:

Heat map, 2013-14:

...yeah.

 

Heat map, 2014-15:

...yeah.

 

Heat map, 2016-17:

 

This tells us a lot more than raw shot numbers. Not only have we lowered our shots against (in one case by enough to jump as many as 10 spots in the standings if we were to lower that amount from a different team) this season relative to those, but it is hard to exaggerate how much better we are at limiting high quality shots. The "NHL defensemen" we employed during the tank let teams go absolutely nuts from every prime scoring area, where the heat map for this season shows that we are better than average at keeping teams out of high scoring areas this season. Sure, our shots against aren't ideal and are pretty high, but they're from low-percentage areas which is likely by design. Sure, they'd be lower than this if our defensemen were in a system that allowed them to transition the puck and weren't Josh Gorges/Zach Bogosian. But from a total defenseman set standpoint, you have to jump through a lot of hoops to call this defense worse at defense than the tank ones. Another place the discrepancy shows up is that Lehner is near the top of the NHL in save percentage but actually has pretty bad numbers facing shots from high danger areas - he just doesn't see many of them. He'd be pitiful if he dealt with the defense allowing the shots that the tank ones did. 

 

On an individual defenseman level, here are the guys that played more than 15 games for the 13-14 tank team:

In the 2013-14 season, here are the defensemen that played for the Sabres:

Ehrhoff, 79 GP, 33 PTS, (-27 for pi), 46.4 CF%

McBain, 69 GP, 17 PTS, (-13), 41.6 CF%

Weber, 68 GP, 9 PTS, (-29), 40.2 CF%

Tallinder, 64 GP, 8 PTS, (-21), 42.3 CF%

Myers, 62 GP, 22 PTS, (-26), 43.9 CF% 

Pysyk, 44 GP, 7 PTS, -11, 45.9 CF%

18 year old Ristolainen, 34 GP, 4 PTS, -15, 40.9 CF%

Sulzer, 25 GP, 2 PTS, -3, 41.3 CF%

Ruwhedel, 21 GP, 1 PT, -3, 44.9 CF%

 

So we roughly ran

Ehrhoff - Myers

McBain - Tallinder

Weber - Pysyk

with a rookie Risto, Sulzer, and Ruwhedel getting some time.

 

Offensively, all defensemen that played generated a total of 105 points in 82 games, for 1.28 points per game. 3 of these 9 players play a regular shift in the NHL, and the rest belong nowhere near it, and didn't then either.

 

14-15 tank team, defensemen with over 15 GP:

Ristolainen, 78 GP, 20 PTS, -32, 37.3 CF%

Weber, 64 GP, 7 PTS, -22, 38.5 CF% 

Zadorov, 60 GP, 15 PTS, -10, 39.3 CF%

Meszaros, 60 GP, 14 PTS, -13, 39.1 CF%

Benoit, 59 GP, 9 PTS, -19, 36.8 CF% 

Myers, 47 GP, 13 PTS, -15, 34.8 CF%

Strachan, 46 GP, 5 PTS, -30, 37.1 CF%

Gorges, 46 GP, 6 PTS, -28, 34.5 CF%

Bogosian, 21 GP, 7 PTS, -7, 41.0 CF%

 

So you could say we ran

Weber - Risto

Zadorov - Myers/Bogosian

Meszaros/Gorges - Benoit/Strachan

 

Offensively our defensemen generated 100 points in 82 games, for 1.22 points per game. 5 of these 9 players play a regular shift in the NHL and only 4 of them should.

 

This season, we have

Ristolainen, 65 GP, 39 PTS, -5, 43.9 CF%

McCabe, 60 GP, 15 PTS, +4, 46.7 CF%

Franson, 58 GP, 18 PTS, 0, 50.3 CF%

Gorges, 49 GP, 3 PTS, -1, 42.1 CF%

Falk, 41 GP, 7 PTS, 0, 50.3 CF%

Bogosian, 39 GP, 7 PTS, -15, 48.7 CF%

Kulikov, 39 GP, 2 PTS, -17, 45.1 CF%

Fedun, 25 GP, 7 PTS, +3, 54.0 CF%

 

The lines are generally

McCabe - Ristolainen

Kulikov - Bogosian 

Falk/Gorges - Franson/Fedun 

 

With a lot of injuries. In particular, Kulikov has an injury that is absolutely crippling and has us wondering how he's even playing. Bogosian and Gorges plain suck, and Risto, McCabe, Franson are bona fide top 4 players on good teams this season (well, call Franson a 5) with Falk and Fedun playing very passable bottom pair minutes. The defensemen have scored 98 points in 66 games for 1.48 points per game. In a system that plays against most of these guys' strengths, they are still far, far better on paper, individually, and as a unit both offensively and defensively than either tank team. Gorges is the only guy that doesn't belong on NHL ice even in sheltered minutes. 

 

There is no possible way to maintain a grasp on reality while claiming that the tank teams had better defensemen, or a better defensive unit on the whole. There is no lens you can look through that will even give the illusion it's now worse, unless you maintain that league rankings of one and only one particular stat without comparing the actual numbers to each other, and then an incorrect assumption about scoring rates, is a fair and meaningful lens through which to look.

Twitter is enlightening.

 

McCabe says "An unlucky bounce happens, then we have a breakdown.  Just like that we lose the game".

 

Eichel says :"We played aggressive in the first, and then sit back and let them take it to us in the second and third.  It's the tale of every game we've played in the last few...."  "same thing has happened in the last few weeks just about blowing leads".

 

So now a 2nd player has basically called the team fragile.  And Jack is complaining about players sitting back.

 

DD probably isn't the right coach for the team, but he isn't telling them to sit back.  This a problem with players that don't have the fortitude to get it done.  This is a player problem.

 

It wasn't that long ago that we complained about Lindy's team going into Alamo mode too.  Except it wasn't Lindy's doing.  With Drury, Briere, McKee, and Dumont they stayed on the attack.  With Pominville, Roy, Stafford, Connolly, and Vanek leading the show they laid back.  Same thing is happening today.  Something is amiss in this group of players.

DD pulls forecheckers and focuses on prevent defense, and has been yelled at by Murray for doing it, specifically after the Flyers game earlier this season. He does try to reign them in. So do many other coaches in the league. It's not why DD is a problem. There has been a lot of analysis on this board as to why DD is the problem, though I've gotten the sense that you don't buy into it, which is cool, but vague claims about 07-08 teams (which had lost their best two players and were thus plain bad at hockey relative to those that came before, playing guys in positions above their level which also contributed to the view that they failed as leaders when really they just weren't #1 C's/W's/whatever) playing with leads without bringing stats/evidence and then concluding that Dan is not to blame based on that is not going to move many needles here. 

Edited March 6, 2017 by Randall Flagg

[qwksndmonster]

Important things to happen the rest of this season:

1.) Get Dan canned, any way possible.

2.) Jack get many points.

3.) Risto, ROR survive.

4.) Sam center.

5.) Cry.

:lol: this is perfect

[Weave]

DD pulls forecheckers and focuses on prevent defense, and has been yelled at by Murray for doing it, specifically after the Flyers game earlier this season. He does try to reign them in. So do many other coaches in the league. It's not why DD is a problem. There has been a lot of analysis on this board as to why DD is the problem, though I've gotten the sense that you don't buy into it, which is cool, but vague claims about 07-08 teams playing with leads without bringing stats/evidence and then concluding that Dan is not to blame based on that is not going to move many needles here.

 

It's not that I don't buy into it.  I'm underwhelmed by DD as well.  It's that I recognize some similar signs from the past, and they weren't signs that pointed to the coach. 

 

As for bringing evidence, the passion isn't there for me to put in the effort.  Congrats on your passion.  I just don't care enough anymore to do it.;

[Randall Flagg]

It's not that I don't buy into it.  I'm underwhelmed by DD as well.  It's that I recognize some similar signs from the past, and they weren't signs that pointed to the coach. 

 

As for bringing evidence, the passion isn't there for me to put in the effort.  Congrats on your passion.  I just don't care enough anymore to do it.;

That is totally understandable. I can see mine disappearing sometime soon too, especially with changes coming up in my life.

[dudacek]

Flagg, all I needed was the eye test to see the statement was ridiculous.

But outstanding work

 

PS: What's the big change?

Edited March 6, 2017 by dudacek

[Robviously]

With the stat you refer to, you actually just give our ranking relative to the league and avoid what the actual number was, so I'm going to take a look at that. But first, some other team stats:

 

Sabres ranking in ES goals against this year: 14th, 2.05 per game.

Sabres ranking in ES goals against during the 2014-15 tank season: 27th, 2.40 per game.

Sabres ranking in ES goals against during the 2013-14 tank season: 26th,  2.28 per game.

 

Sabres ranking in total goals against this year: 16th, 2.77 per game.

Sabres ranking in total goals against during the 2014-15 tank season: 29th, 3.28 per game.

Sabres ranking in total goals against during the 2013-14 tank season: 25th, 2.96 per game.

 

Sure, this stat can be influenced by goalies. Let's look for some shot suppression:

Sabres ranking in shots against per game this year: 30th, like you said, with 33.9 shots against per game.

Sabres ranking in shots against per game during the 2014-15 tank season: 30th, with 35.6 shots per game, almost 2 more per game, which is often enough to jump 10-15 spots in this category most years.

Sabres ranking in shots against per game during the 2013-14 tank season: 28th, 34.3 shots against per game.

 

Shots aren't the whole story, how do the shot attempts match up? The Sabres this season are 24th in CA per 60, with 58 attempts allowed per 60 minutes. The McEichel tank team? 30th place, with 67.4 shot attempts allowed per 60 minutes. They had 61.4 shot attempts per 60 the season before that one, 29th place. 13/14's number is one of the worst since this started being tracked, and the McEichel team's CA per 60 is by far the worst ever recorded. This year's team isn't even bottom 5 among teams in 2016-17 by itself.

 

So they are better at suppressing shots than they were those seasons. Let's take a look at where they came from:

Heat map, 2013-14:

...yeah.

 

Heat map, 2014-15:

...yeah.

 

Heat map, 2016-17:

 

This tells us a lot more than raw shot numbers. Not only have we lowered our shots against (in one case by enough to jump as many as 10 spots in the standings if we were to lower that amount from a different team) this season relative to those, but it is hard to exaggerate how much better we are at limiting high quality shots. The "NHL defensemen" we employed during the tank let teams go absolutely nuts from every prime scoring area, where the heat map for this season shows that we are better than average at keeping teams out of high scoring areas this season. Sure, our shots against aren't ideal and are pretty high, but they're from low-percentage areas which is likely by design. Sure, they'd be lower than this if our defensemen were in a system that allowed them to transition the puck and weren't Josh Gorges/Zach Bogosian. But from a total defenseman set standpoint, you have to jump through a lot of hoops to call this defense worse at defense than the tank ones. Another place the discrepancy shows up is that Lehner is near the top of the NHL in save percentage but actually has pretty bad numbers facing shots from high danger areas - he just doesn't see many of them. He'd be pitiful if he dealt with the defense allowing the shots that the tank ones did. 

 

On an individual defenseman level, here are the guys that played more than 15 games for the 13-14 tank team:

In the 2013-14 season, here are the defensemen that played for the Sabres:

Ehrhoff, 79 GP, 33 PTS, (-27 for pi), 46.4 CF%

McBain, 69 GP, 17 PTS, (-13), 41.6 CF%

Weber, 68 GP, 9 PTS, (-29), 40.2 CF%

Tallinder, 64 GP, 8 PTS, (-21), 42.3 CF%

Myers, 62 GP, 22 PTS, (-26), 43.9 CF% 

Pysyk, 44 GP, 7 PTS, -11, 45.9 CF%

18 year old Ristolainen, 34 GP, 4 PTS, -15, 40.9 CF%

Sulzer, 25 GP, 2 PTS, -3, 41.3 CF%

Ruwhedel, 21 GP, 1 PT, -3, 44.9 CF%

 

So we roughly ran

Ehrhoff - Myers

McBain - Tallinder

Weber - Pysyk

with a rookie Risto, Sulzer, and Ruwhedel getting some time.

 

Offensively, all defensemen that played generated a total of 105 points in 82 games, for 1.28 points per game. 3 of these 9 players play a regular shift in the NHL, and the rest belong nowhere near it, and didn't then either.

 

14-15 tank team, defensemen with over 15 GP:

Ristolainen, 78 GP, 20 PTS, -32, 37.3 CF%

Weber, 64 GP, 7 PTS, -22, 38.5 CF% 

Zadorov, 60 GP, 15 PTS, -10, 39.3 CF%

Meszaros, 60 GP, 14 PTS, -13, 39.1 CF%

Benoit, 59 GP, 9 PTS, -19, 36.8 CF% 

Myers, 47 GP, 13 PTS, -15, 34.8 CF%

Strachan, 46 GP, 5 PTS, -30, 37.1 CF%

Gorges, 46 GP, 6 PTS, -28, 34.5 CF%

Bogosian, 21 GP, 7 PTS, -7, 41.0 CF%

 

So you could say we ran

Weber - Risto

Zadorov - Myers/Bogosian

Meszaros/Gorges - Benoit/Strachan

 

Offensively our defensemen generated 100 points in 82 games, for 1.22 points per game. 5 of these 9 players play a regular shift in the NHL and only 4 of them should.

 

This season, we have

Ristolainen, 65 GP, 39 PTS, -5, 43.9 CF%

McCabe, 60 GP, 15 PTS, +4, 46.7 CF%

Franson, 58 GP, 18 PTS, 0, 50.3 CF%

Gorges, 49 GP, 3 PTS, -1, 42.1 CF%

Falk, 41 GP, 7 PTS, 0, 50.3 CF%

Bogosian, 39 GP, 7 PTS, -15, 48.7 CF%

Kulikov, 39 GP, 2 PTS, -17, 45.1 CF%

Fedun, 25 GP, 7 PTS, +3, 54.0 CF%

 

The lines are generally

McCabe - Ristolainen

Kulikov - Bogosian 

Falk/Gorges - Franson/Fedun 

 

With a lot of injuries. In particular, Kulikov has an injury that is absolutely crippling and has us wondering how he's even playing. Bogosian and Gorges plain suck, and Risto, McCabe, Franson are bona fide top 4 players on good teams this season (well, call Franson a 5) with Falk and Fedun playing very passable bottom pair minutes. The defensemen have scored 98 points in 66 games for 1.48 points per game. In a system that plays against most of these guys' strengths, they are still far, far better on paper, individually, and as a unit both offensively and defensively than either tank team. Gorges is the only guy that doesn't belong on NHL ice even in sheltered minutes. 

 

There is no possible way to maintain a grasp on reality while claiming that the tank teams had better defensemen, or a better defensive unit on the whole. There is no lens you can look through that will even give the illusion it's now worse, unless you maintain that league rankings of one and only one particular stat without comparing the actual numbers to each other, and then an incorrect assumption about scoring rates, is a fair and meaningful lens through which to look.

DD pulls forecheckers and focuses on prevent defense, and has been yelled at by Murray for doing it, specifically after the Flyers game earlier this season. He does try to reign them in. So do many other coaches in the league. It's not why DD is a problem. There has been a lot of analysis on this board as to why DD is the problem, though I've gotten the sense that you don't buy into it, which is cool, but vague claims about 07-08 teams (which had lost their best two players and were thus plain bad at hockey relative to those that came before, playing guys in positions above their level which also contributed to the view that they failed as leaders when really they just weren't #1 C's/W's/whatever) playing with leads without bringing stats/evidence and then concluding that Dan is not to blame based on that is not going to move many needles here. 

Welp.  You are 100% completely right and I was wrong.  We have a better defense than we did two years ago when we were trying to lose.  We're still terrible, but better than two years ago.  I guess that's something?  It's barely worth caring about right now.

 

I do feel completely terrible that you spent so much time putting this together on a Sunday night.  I was mostly venting and I'm honestly not even surprised I was wrong.  

 

Hopefully the rest of your night is better than this, my friend.